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IBM Watson, IDx collaborate on imaging applications
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IBM Watson Health and IDx LLC announced a 5-year strategic alliance to advance eye health through cognitive computing applications to aid primary care providers, hospitals and health systems deliver value-based care for patients with diabetic retinopathy and other serious eye conditions, according to a press release.
The analysis leverages more than a decade of IDx’s ophthalmic image analysis work and IBM’s cognitive health care offerings and global reach, according to the announcement.
IBM Watson Health has the option to distribute IDx offerings through the alliance.
Initially, IBM Watson Health intends to distribute IDx-DR, an automated solution for diabetic retinopathy screening that is currently available in 31 countries that comprise the European Economic Area.
IBM Watson Health may expand its distribution of IDx-DR to Australia, Canada and the U.S. upon regulatory approvals of the product.
IDx is currently conducting a U.S.-based clinical trial of IDx-DR scheduled for completion this summer.
“Over the past decades, productivity in health care has not kept pace with other sectors. Patients and providers worldwide are paying the price,” Michael Abramoff, MD, PhD, founder and president of IDx, said in the release. “Our mission at IDx has always been to transform the quality, accessibility and affordability of global health care through the automation of medical screening to support physicians’ diagnoses. We are incredibly pleased to partner with IBM Watson Health, which shares this vision, and believe they will help us scale the IDx mission to its fullest potential.”
The announcement follows news that IDx joined the global IBM Watson medical imaging collaborative, which includes 24 members worldwide.
The collaborative has a working group on eye health, which aims to accelerate Watson’s understanding of a range of high-impact diseases – such as glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration and cardiovascular disease – using various imaging modalities including fundus and optical coherence tomography.
IDx-DR version 2.0 has CE marking as a Class 2a Medical Device for sale in the EU. IDx products have not yet been cleared by the FDA and are not currently for sale in the U.S.